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Voters strike down all six proposals

All six proposals — one veto referendum and five constitutional amendments — failed to make it in the Michigan election on Nov. 6:

• Proposal 1, the veto referendum, was to expand emergency managers’ powers and the ability of the governor to appoint emergency managers for a municipality or school district.

The Detroit Free Pressnoted that Gov. Rick Snyder told WWJ-AM that this will make it difficult for financially troubled communities to succeed.

• Proposal 2 would have made collective bargaining through labor unions a right for public and private workers.

Michigan Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rich Studley said in a statement to The Detroit News: ”Michigan union bosses were more interested in attacking job providers and the state’s reinvention effort than in representing their members best interest, and today at the ballot box union members themselves stood up to their bosses and overwhelmingly rejected their divisive approach.”

• Proposal 3, the renewable energy measure, was to mandate that 25 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2025.

Steve Transeth, the former head of the Michigan Public Service Commission who has worked to defeat the ballot measure, told The Detroit News: ”As we’ve said all along, it’s very important we move forward with clean energy and a clean environment. But this proposal was just not the way to go about it.”

• Proposal 4 would have given in-home health care providers collective bargaining rights with the Michigan Quality Home Care Council (a new council within Michigan Department of Community Health).

• Proposal 5 would have required any increase in state taxes to be approved by a two-thirds majority in the Legislature, or a statewide vote.

• Proposal 6 called for voters to approve any new international bridge or tunnel via statewide referendum, as well as a referendum in any municipality in which the new bridge would be located.

Mickey Blashfield, director of Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel “Matty” Moroun’s ballot committee, hinted to Crain’s Detroit Business of litigation to come: “If the governmental proposal doesn’t collapse from the weight of legal and congressional scrutiny, the [New International Trade Crossing] will never be built over unstable salt mine foundations, where land speculators are lining up to get rich on the government’s tab.